KC Royals’ Jonathan Heasley pitches through stomach trouble before bullpen gives up 7 runs

Kansas City Royals pitcher Jonathan Heasley has had stomach trouble and pitched before, it just hadn’t always been so public.

Earlier this season before a game in KC, he vomited in the clubhouse and still made his start that night. Last season at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, he vomited on the field in the middle of a start.

Tuesday night, Heasley’s internal upheaval struck again in the middle of the game on the field with all eyes on him as he faced the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of an announced 12,427 at Kauffman Stadium.

Heasley, a 25-year-old right-hander from Texas, vomited the middle of the diamond three times over the course of two innings during his outing. He still managed to leave with a lead, but the Royals fell 7-3 to the Diamondbacks in the first game of their two-game set.

“I feel good now. Most of you guys know this has happened before,” Heasley said to reporters after the game. “It happened last year in a game. I think it’s — I don’t know, honestly. There’s nothing I can do to stop it. It just kind of hits me sometimes. I think it’s a mix of adrenaline, everything, getting a little amped up, whatever.

“It sucks it happened when it did. I was more frustrated about not getting through that fifth inning. I knew the bullpen was a little thin today. I was more frustrated that I had to come out when I did and just kind of put the team in a tough spot.”

Rookie infielder Bobby Witt Jr. went 2 for 4 with a home run, a triple and two runs scored, while Salvador Perez (1 for 4, RBI) and MJ Melendez (0 for 2, walk, sacrifice fly) also drove in runs for the Royals (50-75).

Royals infielder Nicky Lopez (1 for 2, run scored) tripled and walked, and Michael A. Taylor (1 for 4) also had a hit.

The Royals were held to five hits by the Diamondbacks (56-66).

Despite apparent gastrointestinal distress, Heasley pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed four hits and four walks. He also struck out two batters. He threw 79 pitches.

Heasley stranded seven runners in the first four innings.

“I made pitches when I had to,” Heasley said. “I had pretty decent command. Not command of my fastball, but decent command of my off-speed. I was able to get a really good feel for the changeup and get some weak contact on that.

“But overall, I wouldn’t say it was my best. I had to grind through it, make pitches when I had to, got out of some jams with runners on base. At the end of the day, I felt like I did my job and just wish I could’ve stayed in there a little longer for sure.”

With two outs in the fourth inning and a runner on base, Heasley stepped off the back of the mound, squatted down and vomited on the infield grass. That prompted a visit from Royals manager Mike Matheny as well as head athletic trainer Kyle Turner.

Heasley drank some water and threw a warm up pitch, then he continued the inning.

However, he threw up once more, after he’d walked a batter to put two men on base. He completed the inning and stranded the runners to keep the game a 0-0 tie through the top of the fourth.

“I threw up before every single football game in high school,” Heasley said. “It’s just kind of been something. I think it’s just the day of kind of thing. I think I just get super excited, super amped up, just a competitor. Unfortunately, it goes straight to my stomach and sometimes it comes out. It is what it is. It just sucks it happened when it did.”

A tipping point for Heasley

Heasley came back out for the fifth inning and recorded the first two outs before he vomited a third time and was removed from the game. Reliever Jose Cuas took over on the mound for Heasley.

“Even in the middle of that, as hard as that is to watch, his response was ‘this happens,’” Matheny said. “So it’s not a sick issue. He gets amped up, and that’s something that’s happened to him multiple times, he says, throughout his life. It just got to the point where he looked peaked to me. I know that’s not fun to go through, so I need to get him out.”

Matheny said the Royals medical team had given Heasley the go-ahead to continue pitching, and he’d been checked out by the doctors, but they got to the point after the fourth inning where they decided they’d take him out if it happened again.

The Royals bullpen was somewhat depleted. Brad Keller, who recently been converted from the starting rotation to the bullpen, pitched twice in relief in a four-day period that included a multi-inning outing.

Right-hander Carlos Hernández pitched twice in the previous three days, including a multi-inning outing. Dylan Coleman had pitched each of the previous two days, including an outing of more than one inning.

And left-hander Amir Garrett began serving a two-game suspension handed down by MLB.

“We were light in the bullpen, but I’m not leaving him in there if I get anything from him or the medical team that this is as bad as it looked,” Matheny said. “I mean, I’m not staying out there if that happens.

“We’ve seen video of him doing it at the lower levels. Every single guy that he has played with had a story. He just keeps pitching. It’s just different. But as long as we were told (it’s okay) and he wanted the ball — but guys want the ball a lot — but the medical team is good with what they’re seeing and they have an understanding of the why and he’s not being put at risk, we’re going to let him pitch.”

The Diamondbacks’ first run came in the sixth inning after back-to-back two-out singles followed by a double lined back up the middle with an exit velocity of 100.7 mph off the leg of Cuas that caromed into left field for an RBI double.

Royals reliever Josh Staumont allowed a run on a bases-loaded Jack McCarthy sacrifice fly in the seventh that gave the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead.

Staumont came out for a second inning in the top of the eighth. He recorded just one out and gave up a hit and two walks as he turned a bases-loaded situation over to Luke Weaver. Staumont threw a career-high 42 pitches.

Weaver gave up three runs, all charged to Staumont, as the Diamondbacks added considerable cushion to their lead. They turned a one-run edge into a 5-1 advantage going into the bottom of the eighth.

Witt and Lopez each hit triples and scored in the eighth, but the Diamondbacks scored two more runs against Weaver in the top of the ninth to restore their four-run lead.